A study of prions, which are lethal infectious agents composed of misfolded proteins that can cause rapid neurodegenerative disease, finds that although brain tissue from symptomatic prion-infected mice is toxic to healthy neurons, pure samples of prions are not toxic, suggesting that the toxic species causing neurodegeneration are distinct from the infectious species.
Article #20-07406: "Highly infectious prions are not directly neurotoxic," by Iryna Benilova et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: John Collinge, University College London, UNITED KINGDOM; e-mail: jc@prion.ucl.ac.uk
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences